FIGS. 1A and 1B depict ABS and side views of a conventional magnetic recording transducer 10. The magnetic recording transducer 10 may be a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) transducer. The conventional magnetic recording transducer 10 may be a part of a merged head including the write transducer 10 and a read transducer (not shown). Alternatively, the magnetic recording head may be a write head including only the write transducer 10. The conventional write transducer 10 may also be used in shingle magnetic recording schemes, which may allow for a larger pole tip geometry.
The write transducer 10 includes an underlayer 12, a nonmagnetic layer 14, a main pole 20 and a trailing shield 30. The underlayer 12 may include multiple structures which are under the pole 20. The transducer 10 may also include other components including but not limited to coils for energizing the main pole 20.
The main pole 20 resides on an underlayer 12 and includes sidewalls 22 and 24. The sidewalls 22 and 24 of the conventional main pole 20 form an angle φ0 with the down track direction at the ABS. The trailing surface (top) of the pole is wider than the leading surface (bottom) of the main pole. The top (trailing) surface of the main pole 20 also has a bevel angle φ1 with the stripe height direction. Thus, a write gap of constant width, d, is formed between the trailing shield 30 and the main pole 20.
Although the conventional magnetic recording transducer 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the conventional magnetic recording head 10 may not perform sufficiently at higher recording densities. For example, the write field of the conventional main pole 20 may be shunted by the trailing shield 30. Consequently, insufficient field for writing to the media (not shown in FIGS. 1A-1B) may be provided. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording head.